Dispensing containers



March 1, 1966 R. H. VIZETHANN DISPENSING CONTAINERS Filed Jan. 27, 1964INVENTOR. RAYMOND E VYZZ'ZHAJVW United States Patent Ofifice 3,2313%Patented Mar. 1, 1966 3,237,837 DISPENSING CONTAINERS Raymond E.Vizethaun, 766 Terhune Road, Ridgewood, NJ. Filed Jan. 27, 1964, Ser.No. 340,294 1 Claim. (Cl. 229-17) This invention relates to a dispensingcontainer and especially to a box or carton for shipping cans and havingreadily removable portions to facilitate the use of the container as adispenser on a gravity feed merchandise rack.

In a co-pending application for US. Letters Patent Serial #340,293,filed January 27, 1964, in which I am co-inventor there is shown amethod and apparatus for dispensing cans in supermarkets or the likefrom a merchandise rack by gravity feed through the use of the shippingcontainer as part of the combination with the merchandise rack in orderto decrease excess handling of the cans and to facilitate the dispensingof the cans to the customer. The present invention relates only to thearrangement in the dispensing container itself whereby portions areremovable to facilitate the gravity dispensing of the cans.

Generally described, without restriction on the scope of my invention asdefined in the appended claim, the container may be folded in anysuitable manner by hand or by whatever folding machinery is desired andthe exact fold of the basic container itself does not per se form anypart of or restriction on the present invention. For illustration acarton is folded into rectangular formation through the conventional useof front and back fiaps foldable about fold lines along opposite sidesand also front end flaps foldable from opposite ends on both the backand front. The front and rear flaps are respectively folded inwardlytoward each other on top of inwardly folded front and rear and the sideflaps on the front and back are folded thereover and glued or otherwisefixed in place. Inherently, this construction in any container or cartonleaves raw edges inside the box, carton or container which presentpotential impediment or interference with the gravity feed of cans lyingon their sides stacked in the container. Also, as pointed out in theco-pending application referred to previously, in one form of theinvention it is important to space the dispensing container a distancefrom the front of merchandise support or shelf thereby allowing a fewcans to flow from the dispenser prior to removal from the shelf forexhibition purposes and to facilitate in some instances the removal byhand. In the present carton construction, weakened lines, as byperforation or slitting, are formed along opposite sides of one end ofthe container near the bottom thereof intersecting substantially withthe foid lines of the side flaps at that end whereby small substantiallyrectangular pieces of box are readily removed leaving a flap extendingfrom the side upwardly around one end and joining the end by means of aweakened line whereby the flap is readily detached and extended alongthe mechandise shelf to position the container, carton or box in theproper location. The small rectangular pieces are removed and discardedand to facilitate all of this, notched portions may be provided atvarious places to facilitate the insertion of a finger and the graspingand the tearing away of the material.

An object of this invention is to provide removable portions on ashipping container to facilitate the gravity feed of cans therefrom.

A further object of this invention resides in the provision of removablepieces from the shipping container leaving a flap which may bedisengaged from the container and extended.

Another object of this invention resides in the provision of weakenedlines defining portions of a shipping carton which readily may be tornaway to create a dispensing opening through which cans will roll bygravity without impediment from carton edges.

Still another advantage of the present invention is found in thearrangement of a flap which includes one corner of the shippingcontainer whereby the flap may be torn away from its connection with thecarton to provide a smooth surface over which cans will roll by gravityand also to provide a space in front of the lower end of the cartonduring dispensing.

Other and further objects and advantages of my invention will becomeapparent upon reading the following specification taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a shipping container constructed inaccordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the container shown in FIG. 1, withportions removed and the bottom flap extended.

The completed carton shown in FIG. 1, and designated generally byreference numeral 10 may be constructed basically in any number ofcontainer or carton forms adapted to be cut on conventional machineryand folded by existing folding-box machinery in present commercial use.Ordinarily, since cartons for temporarily shipping cans are discardedafter use, the construction is kept at a minimum and the material is themost economical available that will withstand one shipment. Varioustypes of paperboard such as cardboard, pressed board and other materialsare used for this purpose. Container 10 is made from a basic blank whichhas opposed sides 12, 14 connected by ends 16, 18 about end fold lines29 on one end and 22 on the other end. Sides 12, 14 are provided withfront and rear flaps, respectively 24, 26 at front, and rear,respectively, 28, 3%), which are foldable about respective fold lines 32on the front and 34 on the rear. Ends 16, 18 are provided with frontflaps 36, 38 foldable about fold lines 44 and rear flaps 42, 44 foldableabout rear fold lines 46.

As readily seen in FIG. 1, in completed condition the container 10 hasthe front flaps 24, 26 folded on top of the flaps 36, 38 and glued inplace and likewise the rear fiaps 28, 30 are folded in place on top offlaps d2, 44 to complete the three-dimensional container which has cansstacked therein with the length of the can running substantiallyparallel with the ends 16, 18.

The foregoing arrangement is conventional in container construction anddoes not form any part per se of the present invention since otherfolded container arrangements may be readily used herein.

In the construction of container 10, one of the front flaps 26 isprovided with weakened lines, line 59 running parallel to fold line 14and line 52 running parallel to the fold lines 40. These weakened linesextend through the carton including the flap 36. A weakened portion at54 defines a finger tab which may be punched out with the finger toassist in the removal and tearing away of a rectangular portion 56removed by pulling from the container 16. An identical portion 58 isformed along weakened lines 5t}, 52 on the exact opposite side of thecontainer.

The weakened lines extend substantially along the edges 49, 46 defininga portion 6th on the end 42 of container 10 which is to be bent out ofposition and the exact dimension of flap 60 is defined at the top byweakened line 62 having a finger punch portion 64 therein. The weakenedlines identified as 66 extend through the edge of the box on end 42 sothat the entire fiap 69 may be bent about the fold line 20 on that endand extended substantially co-extensive with the side 14 to form a flatsurface on which cans will roll by gravity.

The dotted lines in FIG. 2, designated by reference numeral 70 representthe end of a gravity feed shelf 70 which is lower than the upper edge 22of container whereby cans within container 10 will roll from the openingcreated by the removal of pieces 56, 58 and the transposition of flap 60whereby cans will feed from the container 10 acting in combination withthe shelf 70 as a dispenser and the cans may thereafter be removed byhand from the front of the shelf 70. This is in accordance with theoperation fully shown and described in my co-pending applicationidentified previously.

While I have shown and described a particular embodiment of my inventiontogether with a suggested use and operation thereof, this is for thepurpose of illustration only and does not constitute any sort oflimitation on the scope of my invention since various alterations,changes, deviations, ramifications, modifications, eliminations andsubstitutions may be made in the embodiment shown and described withoutdeparting from the scope of my invention as defined in the appendedclaim.

I claim:

In a can dispensing package:

(a) a folded shipping container having opposed side and end walls, a topand a bottom wall comprising opposed side flaps and end flaps hingedlyformed along fold lines to said side and end wall respectively, foldedtogether one over the other and attached in place to form a box whereinthe raw edges of the end flaps lie inside and transversely of the sideflaps,

(b) said container having cylindrical containers such as cans inside,said cylindrical containers lying in rows parallel With the ends, thelongitudinal axis of each parallel to said side and end walls,

(c) a removable portion of said top panel at one corner there of definedby weakened lines extending through said side flap and underlying endflap, said weakened lines extending from the junction of one side andone end wall to spaced points along the fold lines joining the side flapto said one side wall and the end flap to said one end wall, theweakened lines extending from said points to another point spacedinwardly of said fold lines; said removable portion including at least aportion of the raw edge of the end panel which are removed therewith,

(d) a second identical removable portion on the bottom panel located atthe directly opposite corner thereof,

(e) a corner flap, formed by weakened lines located on the end wallbetween said identical removable portion, said corner flap beinghingedly attached to said one side wall, and positioned between saidremovable portions, so that said corner flap becomes an extension ofsaid side wall when said container is positioned on its side wall andlocated on an inclined support whereby said cans will roll by gravity.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,585,494 5/1926Harvey 229-17 1,668,171 5/1928 Pratt 206-56 1,959,231 5/1934 Dube229--17 2,139,021 12/1938 Johnson 22951 2,842,304 7/ 1958 Ringler 229512,875,938 3/1959 Brarnhill 22917 2,944,124 7/1960 Arnold W 206-563,066,843 12/1962 Johnson 20644.12

JOSEPH R. LECLAIR, Primary Examiner.

FRANKLIN T. GARRETT, Examiner.

